THE MYSTERIOUS MAGICIAN

Bad guys: Brockmann, Lange, John, Waitzmann

THE MYSTERIOUS MAGICIAN (aka Der Hexer/1964). Director: Alfred Vohrer. In "Ultrascope." 

Gwenda Milton (Petra von der Linde), the secretary to a corpulent man named Messer (Jochen Brockmann), is strangled and her body dumped in the Thames. Realizing that Gwenda was the sister of criminal mastermind Arthur Milton, popularly known as the "Ringer," Inspector Bryan Edgar Higgins (Joachim Fuchsberger of The Fellowship of the Frog) figures that his adversary is bound to come to London for the funeral and to get even with the people who killed Gwenda. Joining him in his quest for the Ringer is veteran cop Inspector Warren (Siegfried Lowitz), as well as a mysterious man named Wesby (Heinz Drache of The Brides of Fu Manchu), who shows up at opportune moments and may even be the Ringer. Meanwhile Milton's wife, Cora Ann (Margot Trooger), has arrived in London and is in obvious communication with her unseen husband. Higgins promises his girlfriend, Elise (Sophie Hardy), that he will marry her if he captures the Ringer. As for the Ringer, he is going about taking care of the members of Messer's white slavery racket, including Reverend Hopkins (Carl Lange of Death in a Red Jaguar),  Shelby (Karl John), and Reddingwood (Kurt Waitzmann), who guides the gang's mini-sub.

Heinz Drache and Joachim Fuchsberger

Another Edgar Wallace adaptation from West Germany, this is a fast-paced, entertaining, fun movie featuring both of the "heroes" from the series, Fuchsberger and Drache. Elements from sixties spy movies had crept into the krimi movies and Fuchsberger sometimes comes off more like a spy than a police inspector, but that's not a problem in this picture. The Ringer had also appeared in a couple of earlier British films. You may think you have figured out who the Ringer is but you might be wrong. Siegfried Schurenberg appears as Higgins' boss, Sir John, but is not so buffoonish in this. The name Bryan Edgar Higgins is an in-joke referring to Bryan Edgar Wallace, the son of the famous author and a writer himself.  

Verdict: One of the better West German Wallace adaptations. ***. 

THE HAND OF POWER

Death's Head: the killer laughs

THE HAND OF POWER (aka The Zombie Walks aka Im Banne des Unheimlichen/1968). Director: Alfred Vohrer. 

In yet another West German film based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, laughter seems to come from the coffin at Sir Oliver's funeral. This unnerves his brother, Sir Cecil (Wolfgang Kieling of Our Man in Jamaica), especially when someone wearing a death's head mask, cape and hat starts running around poisoning victims via a ring shaped like a scorpion. As Inspector Higgins (Joachim Fuchsberger, as usual) investigates, there are several suspects: Dr. Brand (Siegfried Rauch of The College-Girl Murders); Potter, the vicar (Hans Krull); the stonemason Ramiro (Peter Mosbacher); nurse Adela (Claude Farell); the black chauffeur, Casper (Jimmy Powell); and others. Meanwhile reporter Peggy Ward (Siw Mattson) runs about alternately investigating and interfering. 

Siw Mattson and Joachim Fuchsberger

The film is introduced by a voice claiming to be (the late) Edgar Wallace. This is followed by an absolutely terrible theme song. The plot is very good and quite intriguing, but there's a surfeit of dumb humor, which greatly minimizes any tension. Instead of the buffoonish Sir John, we get the equally buffoonish Sir Arthur (Hubert von Meyerinck) giving Higgins his orders -- he is not only a ballet fan but tries out a few steps in the office. At least the annoying Eddi Arent isn't in the cast. 

Verdict: Good story; so-so execution. **3/4. 

THE INN ON THE RIVER

Joachim Fuchsberger and Brigette Grothum

THE INN ON THE RIVER (aka Das Gasthaus an der Themse/1962). Director: Alfred Vohrer. 

A criminal mastermind known as the Shark is operating in and around a waterfront dive known as the Mekka Inn. The place is run by the shady Nellie Ochs (Elizabeth Flickenschildt of The Terrible People), whose niece, Leila (Brigette Grothum), works as a waitress there. Wearing a scuba outfit  and using a harpoon gun, the Shark dispatches his enemies and sends confederates out to pick up the bodies. Inspector Wade (Joachim Fuchsberger), who is strongly attracted to Leila, matches wits with her aunt while he tracks down the Shark and deals with his generally nasty associates. 

Elisabeth Flickenschildt

The Inn on the River has a typically convoluted Edgar Wallace storyline and one has to pay careful attention to keep track of who's who. The atmospheric locations of docks, sewers, and other underground chambers are the chief assets of the picture, along with the sharp performance of Flickenschildt, although most of the cast is pretty decent. Campy Eddi Arent is again drafted as comic relief and is as irritating as usual. Klaus Kinski plays the usual suspicion person who may or may not be a bad guy. The flick has terrible theme music.

Verdict: Some intriguing aspects but not entirely successful. **1/2. 

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG

The Frog: would you buy a used care from this man?

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG (aka Face of the Frog aka Der Frosch mit der Maske/1959). Director: Harald Reinl. 

London is the locale of a sinister criminal leader known only as the Frog, who has hundreds of cutthroat agents in his employ, and who runs about decked out in a kind of ski cap with bulging bubble eyes. Richard Gordon (Joachim Fuchsberger), the nephew of Scotland Yard's Sir Archibald (Ernst Fritz Furbringer of The Curse of the Hidden Vault), is certain that the Frog is actually the supposedly dead master criminal Harry Lime, but whom is he impersonating when he isn't posing as the Frog? The Frog seems to have an unhealthy interest in the family of John Bennet (Carl Lange of Death in a Red Jaguar), especially his daughter, Ella (Elfie von Kalckreuth), but it's his son, Ray (Walter Wilz), who winds up framed for murder. Then there's the singer, Lolita (Eva Pflug), who seems to be working for the Frog but elicits his wrath in an especially brutal sequence involving a machinegun. Can Ray be saved before he's hanged, and will the Frog ever be unmasked? Inspector Elk (Siegfried Lowitz of The Sinister Monk) has a plan ... 

Matinee Idol: Joachim Fuchsberger

This is the very first of a West German film series based on the novels of Edgar Wallace that would eventually add up to nearly sixty movies (if you also include adaptations of novels written by Wallace's son as well as films clearly influenced by Wallace)! This one, directed by Harald Reinl -- who helmed many of the Jerry Cotton films starring George Nader, as well as Dr. Mabuse movies and The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism -- keeps things moving briskly in this initial entry. Handsome Fuchsberger would appear in many of the subsequent films, generally in a heroic role. Frog is fast-paced, entertaining, and amusing, although the whole business with Ray being arrested and convicted so rapidly seems more than contrived and downright weird. The biggest problem with Frog is that the identity of the master criminal seems obvious, at least to me, almost from the first -- he just sticks out like a sore thumb! Other characters include the cadaverous Maitland, Ray's boss (Fritz Rasp), and his kindly associate Johnson (Jochen Brockmann), as well as Eddi Arent as Gordon's comical butler, James. 

Verdict: Successful enough to engender a whole slew of krimi movies. **3/4.   

THE STRANGE COUNTESS

Brigitte Grothum, Lil Dagover, and Eddi Arent

THE STRANGE COUNTESS (aka Sie seltsame Grafin/1961). Directors: Josef von Baky; Jurgen Roland; Ottokar Runze.

Margaret (Brigitte Grothum) receives menacing phone calls from a strange man (Klaus Kinski), is nearly killed on more than one occasion, and decides to accept a job offer from Countess Luana Moran (Lil Dagover) to become her new secretary. Margaret had previously worked for the countess' lawyer, Shaddle (Fritz Rasp), who importunes Inspector Dorn (Joachim Fuchsberger) to watch out for her as he feels she's in danger. This proves true even when Margaret arrives at the countess' imposing castle, and meets her son, Selwyn (Eddi Arent), the strange Dr. Tappan (Rudolf Fernau), and the oily Chesney Praye (Richard Haussler), among others. If a near-death incident on a collapsing balcony weren't enough, Margaret learns that Mary Pinder (Marianne Hoppe), a woman who served twenty years for poisoning someone, is her biological mother and is coming to work at the castle! Time to seek new employment, perhaps? 

Grothum with Joachim Fuchsberger

This is another West German thriller based on a novel by Edgar Wallace. With mysterious countesses and castles, sinister psychiatric clinics, and a hero who doesn't clue the heroine in as to what's going on and therefore manages to frighten her as much as the bad guys, Strange Countess betrays its thirties origins. While you may develop some interest as to why Margaret is on somebody's hit list, the movie never becomes gripping, although the actors are certainly game. Lil Dagover was a German actress who had a very long career and who appeared in the original silent Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. 

Verdict: Despite a dozen or so people running around in all directions this never becomes that interesting. **. 

THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE

Elisabeth Flickenschildt and Joachim Fuchsberger

THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE (aka Die Bande des Schreckens/1960). Director: Harald Reinl.

Before he is hanged for his many crimes, Clay Shelton (Otto Collin) -- who was captured during a bank robbery -- vows to kill Inspector Long (Joachim Fuchsberger), the judge, the hangman, even a woman, Mrs. Revelstoke (Elisabeth Flickenschildt), who got in his way as he tried to escape, and others. As usual in these kind of movies, the police do a lousy job of protecting these folks, who are killed off one by one. Shelton's grave is empty, and people keep seeing the supposedly dead man in the distance. Then there are the sinister members of a gang called The Gallow's Hand. Long comes to realize that his own father (Fritz Rasp) may somehow be involved in the case, along with Nora Sanders (Karin Dor), who is Mrs. Revelstoke's confused and frightened secretary. Will Long be able to find out what's going on and who is responsible before every witness is killed off?

Fuchsberger with Fritz Rasp

This is another West German Edgar Wallace adaptation, and it is suspenseful and fun, if rather far-fetched. Clay Shelton makes a creepy-looking adversary, and the identity of the true mastermind behind it all comes as a big surprise. The action scenes in the film, especially at the climax, are very well handled. One interesting sequence has the hangman himself being strangled with a noose. When Long receives a written message, someone asks him: "Menacing message or love letter?" To which he replies: "Love letters are always menacing." Eddi Arent plays a crime scene photographer who keeps fainting every time he sees a body, a recurring joke that is never that funny. There are times when this seems very much like a Dr. Mabuse movie.

When I watched this for free on Tubi, the last twenty minutes or so suddenly switched from the dubbed English version to the German-language version -- with no subtitles. Fortunately Amazon Prime also had the film -- in English -- so I was able to learn what everyone was saying, although I had to rent the darn thing to do so.  

Verdict: Another interesting West German crime film. ***. 

THE COLLEGE-GIRL MURDERS

Another mad monk with a whip on the loose!

THE COLLEGE-GIRL MURDERS (aka Der Monch mit der Peitsche/1967). Director: Alfred Vohrer.

Frank Keeney (Siegfried Rauch) is spirited out of jail by corrupt prison staff so he can become a paid killer for an unknown figure who keeps alligators in a pen on his property. Keeney is given a special gun that fires a stream combining gas with acid so that he can kill several co-eds at a girls college run by Harriet Foster (Tilly Lauenstein). If that weren't enough a man in a monk's outfit and carrying a whip murders people just as was done in The Sinister Monk, a film that is referenced in this one. Inspector Higgins (Joachim Fuchsberger) teams up with the rather buffoonish Sir John (Siegfried Schurenberg) to try to unravel a very strange, indeed, utterly absurd -- but very entertaining -- Edgar Wallace mystery. 

Siegfried Rauch

This is another in a series of West German thrillers based on the works of prolific British author Edgar Wallace. College-Girl Murders comes from "The Black Abbot," but somehow I doubt that it's a particularly faithful adaptation. This version has added "euro-spy" elements with secret super-villains in elaborate HQs, weird weapons, and as usual, enough plot for five movies. (Schurenberg's Sir John appears in most of the Wallace adaptations.) The musical score is not off-putting, the pace is fast, the acting is generally good, there are numerous suspects, and the identity of the masterminds comes as a bit of a surprise (although you may not quite buy it). A plot element is "borrowed" from Agatha Christie's "ABC Murders." 

Verdict: Wild and crazy caper from West Germany. **3/4.